Impact of education and training

Transcription

1 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research Maren Heise, Wolfgang Meyer In: Descy, P.; Tessaring, M. (eds) Impact of education and training Third report on vocational training research in Europe: background report. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004 (Cedefop Reference series, 54) Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Additional information on Cedefop s research reports can be found on: For your information: the background report to the third report on vocational training research in Europe contains original contributions from researchers. They are regrouped in three volumes published separately in English only. A list of contents is on the next page. A synthesis report based on these contributions and with additional research findings is being published in English, French and German. Bibliographical reference of the English version: Descy, P.; Tessaring, M. Evaluation and impact of education and training: the value of learning. Third report on vocational training research in Europe: synthesis report. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities (Cedefop Reference series) In addition, an executive summary in all EU languages will be available. The background and synthesis reports will be available from national EU sales offices or from Cedefop. For further information contact: Cedefop, PO Box 22427, GR Thessaloniki Tel.: (30) Fax: (30) info@cedefop.eu.int Homepage: Interactive website:

2 Contributions to the background report of the third research report Impact of education and training Preface The impact of human capital on economic growth: a review Rob A. Wilson, Geoff Briscoe Empirical analysis of human capital development and economic growth in European regions Hiro Izushi, Robert Huggins Non-material benefits of education, training and skills at a macro level Andy Green, John Preston, Lars-Erik Malmberg Macroeconometric evaluation of active labour-market policy a case study for Germany Reinhard Hujer, Marco Caliendo, Christopher Zeiss Active policies and measures: impact on integration and reintegration in the labour market and social life Kenneth Walsh and David J. Parsons The impact of human capital and human capital investments on company performance Evidence from literature and European survey results Bo Hansson, Ulf Johanson, Karl-Heinz Leitner The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research Maren Heise, Wolfgang Meyer The foundations of evaluation and impact research Preface Philosophies and types of evaluation research Elliot Stern Developing standards to evaluate vocational education and training programmes Wolfgang Beywl; Sandra Speer Methods and limitations of evaluation and impact research Reinhard Hujer, Marco Caliendo, Dubravko Radic From project to policy evaluation in vocational education and training possible concepts and tools. Evidence from countries in transition. Evelyn Viertel, Søren P. Nielsen, David L. Parkes, Søren Poulsen Look, listen and learn: an international evaluation of adult learning Beatriz Pont and Patrick Werquin Measurement and evaluation of competence Gerald A. Straka An overarching conceptual framework for assessing key competences. Lessons from an interdisciplinary and policy-oriented approach Dominique Simone Rychen Evaluation of systems and programmes Preface Evaluating the impact of reforms of vocational education and training: examples of practice Mike Coles Evaluating systems reform in vocational education and training. Learning from Danish and Dutch cases Loek Nieuwenhuis, Hanne Shapiro Evaluation of EU and international programmes and initiatives promoting mobility selected case studies Wolfgang Hellwig, Uwe Lauterbach, Hermann-Günter Hesse, Sabine Fabriz Consultancy for free? Evaluation practice in the European Union and central and eastern Europe Findings from selected EU programmes Bernd Baumgartl, Olga Strietska-Ilina, Gerhard Schaumberger Quasi-market reforms in employment and training services: first experiences and evaluation results Ludo Struyven, Geert Steurs Evaluation activities in the European Commission Josep Molsosa

3 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research Maren Heise, Wolfgang Meyer Abstract This paper has been prepared within the framework of the third Cedefop report on vocational education and training (VET) research in Europe which is dedicated to evaluation and impact research. The objective is to provide an overview of national and cross-national research into the benefits of education and training from a life-course perspective. The existing literature and approaches in this field are reviewed and their results discussed from a European perspective. The report tries to develop an integrated perspective on the material and non-material benefits of education and training throughout the life course and introduces the theoretical approach of life-course and biographical research and its methodological implications. The added value of life-course studies and biographical research for conventional research on education and training benefits is highlighted through lines of thematic investigation. After a review of current empirical work carried out at national and European level, a summary of key findings is presented which highlights those results that allow European (or at least cross-national) comparisons to be taken into consideration. Finally, addressed are the implications of research evidence for policy and practice and recommendations for further research and on how to improve data comparability, particularly at European level.

4 Table of contents 1. Introduction Individual benefits of education, training and skills Approach and focus of investigation Life-course and biographical research Relevance of life-course and biographical research for the investigation of education and training benefits Empirical evidence Life-course and biographical research in Europe Monetary returns on education and training and life-time income Education, training and labour-market participation Education and transitions Generational differences in education and training benefits Social differences in education and training benefits Subjective perception of educational benefits in the biography Research design and data Empirical Studies Studies at national level Cross-national studies Discussion of results Individual monetary returns on education and training Education, training and labour market participation Education, training and transitions Generational and cohort differences in education and training benefits Social differences in education and training benefits Non-material benefits of education and training and subjective biographical perception Non-material benefits of education and training Subjective biographical perception of educational benefits Conclusions and recommendations 365 List of abbreviations 367 Annex: list of data and information sources 368 References 371

5 List of tables and figures Tables Table 1: Longitudinal data sets for research into the impact of education and training in Europe 346 Table 2: National studies on education and training benefits from a life-course perspective 348 Table 3: Selected cross-national studies on education and training benefits from a life-course perspective 354 Figures Figure 1: Individual benefits of education and training 326 Figure 2: Cross-sectional design 331 Figure 3: Retrospective design 332 Figure 4: Comparative cross-sectional design with retrospective questions 332 Figure 5: Panel-design 333 Figure 6: Panel-design with retrospective questions (source population only) 333 Figure 7: Panel-design with retrospective questions (additional sampling) 333 Figure 8: Lexis diagram 334 Figure 9: Prospective data designs 343

6 1. Introduction This paper has been prepared within the framework of the third Cedefop report on vocational education and training (VET) research in Europe, which is dedicated to evaluation and impact research. The paper aims to present an overview of national and cross-national research into the benefits of education and training from a life-course perspective and will discuss relevant approaches and methodologies in the field. Since other contributions focus on VET impacts on a macro or meso level, our study is concerned with the individual, or microsocial benefits of education. In particular, we look at the impact of education, training and skills from a life-course perspective. Life-course and biographical research complements other studies by investigating the long-term educational benefit for individuals and the impact over time of social and structural change. The aim of our study is to provide an overview of existing literature and work in this field and to discuss its findings on the benefits of education and training for the individual in different European countries. In contrast to other approaches, life-course and biographical research is not limited to investigating material issues such as employment and income differentiation, but also focuses on the non-material outcomes of education and training. Our paper will, therefore, consider the material as well as non-material benefits of education and training. As with many other contributions in this report, the basis of this paper is a secondary analysis of recent empirical studies. Besides reviewing published literature for this investigation, we use sources from internet-based material, national experts and grey literature. A complete list of sources is attached in the annex. Nevertheless, the search for relevant material turned out to be quite complicated, especially when trying to provide a European overview. As little work has been found in southern European Member States, any generalisation of results remains limited. Furthermore, it has become obvious that national research is diverse in both its quantity and quality, which is clearly reflected in the data sources used. Comparisons between different countries are therefore difficult to reach. These and further problems of investigation will be discussed in the following chapters of the paper. Following the scientific debate on what benefits of education, training and skills precisely are, the second chapter sets out different concepts and tries to develop an integrated perspective of material and non-material benefits. Furthermore, a classification of education and training benefits is attempted in order to provide an analytical tool for the later arrangement of empirical research in the field. The third chapter introduces the approach of life-course and biographical research and illustrates the methodical implications for empirical research work. The focus of the investigation into the benefits of education and training is explained from the perspective of life-course analysis, and the added value of life-course studies for conventional research into education and training is highlighted. Chapter 4 provides an overview of existing empirical work on the benefits of education and training from a life-course and biographical perspective. Also in this chapter the main methods used to investigate the impact of education and training through life-course and biographical research are clarified and supported by studies from national and crossnational empirical work. As most of the studies are based on different national longitudinal data sets, a comparative and critical approach is adopted. Chapter 5 sums up the key research results. The evidence for the material and non-material benefits of education and training throughout the individual s life course is reviewed and scrutinised critically for its relevance for European VET research. The final chapter tries to derive some implications for policy and practice through focusing on recommendations for further research and on how to improve data comparability at European level in particular.

7 2. Individual benefits of education, training and skills The simple assumption that education and training have short-term and long-term effects on life-course patterns, at least on the individual s career and (life) wages, is generally accepted and its correctness seems to be fairly obvious. But when it comes to actual education and training benefits, questions arise: what do we understand by the term benefits and equally contentious how can these be measured? Furthermore, education and training can take quite different forms as regards its type, content, degree of formality and resources invested. This chapter therefore deals with current perceptions of the benefits of education and training and their consequences for empirical investigation. As concepts of education, as well as training and skills, differ strongly not only between European countries but also because of different schools of tradition, it is necessary to clarify the definitions of education and training as used in this paper. A research review of empirical work needs, as an introduction, a relatively simple technical understanding of its central terms (education, training and skills), in order to clarify the various definitions of education, training and skills/qualifications in existing empirical surveys: (a) education: the term education is used to mean programmes of learning with general objectives relating to the personal development of the learner and his/her acquisition of knowledge. Formal education takes place in a structured and taught manner normally in schools or other educational institutions. Education is also a property that a person possesses after going through this process, usually confirmed by a formal and generally accepted qualification. Therefore, education as a concept is tangible and is in comparison to intangible terms like learning relatively easy to measure (Tessaring et al., 2003; Desjardin, 2001); (b) training: in comparison to education, training is more directly related to the preparation of individuals for employment in current or emerging occupations. Training can take place on-the-job as well as off-the-job, the latter usually being organised as programmes offering a sequence of courses. Training can include applied learning, problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, and the occupationalspecific skills necessary for economic independence as a productive and contributing member of society. The training a person has obtained is usually measured in quantitative terms (duration, frequency) discriminating between types (initial, continuing), degrees of formality and place (Pfeiffer, 2001); (c) skills: The term skill is defined as the relevant knowledge and experience needed to perform a specific task or job. Skills also constitute the product of education, training and job experience together with relevant technical know-how. Specific skills can only be measured through elaborate testing procedures which are normally too costly to perform. As an alternative to the lack of objective measurements, surveys rely on subjective statements from respondents regarding the skills they believe they possess. This is unlikely to be reliable, because the subjective perception of skills can differ strongly between individuals (Bjørnåvold and Tissot, 2000; Mertens, 1999; ETF, 1998). Most empirical studies seem to be based on rather implicit definitions of education and training and reveal a somewhat unstructured picture. As there are many different notions of complex concepts like education, training or skills, there are also many different perceptions of the benefits of education and training. In econometric studies, for example, individual benefits are often reduced to educational returns in terms of income or wage development, avoidance costs and other measurable economic benefits. Predominantly based on human capital theory (Section ), these studies have a clear concept of educational benefits which is as consistent as it is simplistic. In contrast, psychological and educational research concentrates on non-monetary or wider benefits like health, reduction of criminal

8 326 Impact of education and training behaviour or social exclusion, usually without providing any corporate concept of the benefits of education and training. Theoretical educational discussion does not really contribute any greater clarity. Lacking more or less any descriptive concept, most of this research dissipates into some kind of philosophical discourse about the meaning and importance of educational benefits. From a sociological perspective, benefits are perceived as bringing all manner of advantages material or non-material concerning the individual s place within society. Social institutions (e.g. educational system, labour market) and individual behaviour (e.g. educational decisions) determine the chances and risks of attaining, or not attaining, the social position to which an individual aspires. Such a definition allows at least for the integration of economic and non-economic benefits (e.g. power, prestige, satisfaction) and as sociological research shows points to their strong interrelationship. The all-embracing sociological concept is social status, i.e. the position of a person in the social structure of a certain group or society. Status can be assigned (e.g. through nationality, age) but also attained actively through individual performance. It is assumed that education and training play a major role in status attainment. Within this concept hard education and training outcomes, that might be termed material benefits (employment, occupational position, etc.), are more or less directly linked to monetary aspects while other soft or non-material outcomes are rather indirectly influenced by education and training and often conveyed through these material benefits. For example, health or participation in social and cultural life are, at least in part, influenced by individual earnings or the economic status of a person. We recommend the following differentiation between material and non-material benefits as a first analytical tool in this review of studies dealing with the benefits of education and training. Nevertheless, this applied perspective also brings with it some difficulties. Although it seems to be common sense that material benefits are mainly represented by patterns of employment, income and career prospects, concepts of Figure 1: Individual benefits of education and training Culture indipendent Culture dependent Material benefits Non material benefits Monetary current income future income lifetirne income Non monetary career prospects job security job adequaci e. g. health, quality of life, social and cultural participation, personal well-being age, activity, life expectancy, chances of marriage, honorary activity Lifelong learning Learning career Individually perceived

9 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 327 non-material benefits are more controversial ( 1 ). Moreover, non-material benefits are not primarily objective constructs but are merely the result of subjective judgements or cultural dispositions. Marriage, for example, has largely been seen as a social benefit and higher education has increased the likelihood of marriage. Today as a result of individualisation marriage is losing its attractiveness, especially for those with experience of higher education. Nevertheless, some non-material beneficial aspects can be considered substantially agreed upon, such as health and social participation, even if the perception of their benefits remains again rather subjective. For analytical correctness we recommend three additional dimensions of education and training benefits: individually perceived benefits; culture dependent benefits; and culture-independent benefits. Most empirical research into the benefits of education and training claims to apply an objective perspective as a benchmark for beneficial outcomes. But this objectivity is rather questionable even with regard to material benefits, because every benefit remains subjective at micro level. As a kind of compensation for this problem of attribution (how can we know then what is an individual benefit and what is not?) an implicit transfer of a macrosocial to the individual perspective is carried out. Whatever is labelled a benefit from a mass perspective is also a benefit from the individual perspective and vice versa. Understanding individual (micro) benefits is, therefore, largely congruent with social (macro) benefits (for a discussion of the macrosocial benefits of education see the contribution of Green et al. to this report). There is also a tendency to stress the intended outcomes of education and training rather than the unintentional benefits or harm. Research from a life-course perspective tends to concentrate on those education and training benefits which have a longer-term relevance in an individual s development and which undergo a form of accumulation over the life course. Among possible material benefits are primarily (lifetime) income, employment opportunities, career prospects and the avoidance of unemployment. Non-material outcomes of education and training in which life-course research has an interest relate mainly to health, marriage and family formation as well as social participation and status attainment. Furthermore, the inequalities, or neutrally expressed differences, in accessing education and training and the benefits of education and training between social groups, are of special interest in life-course research. The following chapter provides explanations for this special interest by giving a short introduction to the theoretical approach and focus of empirical investigation of the life-course perspective. ( 1 ) The separation of material and non-material benefits is, of course, artificial. While, for example, monetary outcomes can be comparatively easily labelled as a material benefit, the occupational position a person achieves is not only a material and sometimes (e.g. compared to a position occupied before) not even a material benefit, but can also be a non-material one expressed, for example, in achieving higher social prestige.

10 3. Approach and focus of investigation The individual life course can be observed from very different viewpoints and with a great variety of social theories in mind. For the purpose of this research review, the following short definitions of life course and biography (according to Meulemann, 1990a) should be used: (a) the life course is defined as and mostly determined by a series of individual decisions between institutionally offered alternatives which an individual is forced to make at several specific points in history. Each decision influences the path through the institution and the future decision situation. The opportunities presented by social institutions open different pathways of one s individual life through society and its social structure. These generalised pathways are divided into typical patterns and several well-defined sequences. Changes between these pathways (in form of status passages or social mobility) are only possible at special historical transition points, leading from the exit of one sequence to the entrances of a limited number of new sequences. Although the historically observable individual life course is generally structured, and in main parts determined by social institutions, individual decisions between the opportunities offered at these transition points are equally important for its development; (b) Biography is the subjective interpretation and digestion of all life-events, from which decisions during the life course (and their results) are only one (though important) part. Moreover, biography is the self-perception of one s life history and is recognised by the individual as a single entity (in contrast to the clear-cut sequences of the pathways determined by social institutions). While individual biographies are structured by more or less the same patterns (due to the institutional design of life course), homogenous forms of self-perception and identification with social positions seem to be obvious. As a result, typical sociocultural milieus with common interests, experiences, feelings, knowledge, etc., will be formed and have a major impact on social stratification, which itself influences the institutionalisation of life courses by offering opportunities at the transition points. The sociocultural milieus and their way of thinking of society are merely reflected in biographic reports on individual lifestyles or personal autobiographies, these being the most important sources for biographic research. As Roberts (2002, p. 1) mentioned, biographical research is an exciting, stimulating and fast-moving field which seeks to understand the changing experiences and outlooks of individuals in their daily lives, what they see as important, and how to provide interpretations of the accounts they give of their past, present and future. By using this differentiation, life-course research concentrates on the decision situation offered by institutions and its well-defined alternatives (which are mostly also guaranteed by law), while biography focuses on the individual (psychological) process of perceiving, assimilating, understanding and reconstructing reality. It has to be mentioned that other definitions and separations between life course and biography (if any at all) are available in literature and the authors of the studies presented here may not necessarily agree with this characterisation Life-course and biographical research While talking about life-course and/or biographical research, one has to consider that most disciplines within the social sciences have some links to this kind of research. A number of examples concerning specific research questions on the relationship of education and individual life course will be presented in Chapter 4. In this chapter the focus lies on the historical development and its methodological implications of life-course and biographical research. Only a brief overview is possible and no systematic investigation of all theoretical perspectives should be considered (for further information:

11 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 329 Heinz, 1997; Ecarius, 1996; Mayer, 1990; Voges, 1987; Sørensen, 1986; Clausen, 1986; Elder, 1985; Kohli, 1978). However, the strong input of both economic and sociological thinking on the development of life-course and biographical research should be mentioned here. As a result of World War II, social scientific research in Europe almost disappeared in the 1940s. Many economists and social scientists escaped to America, finding not only peace but also a continuously improving infrastructure for their research within an open-minded society. Stimulated by this brain-drain from Europe (and other nations), the newer research areas of economics and sociology developed very quickly. One strong input for life-course research, the study of social change, came out of some of the early studies on city growth, industrial change, and migration in the US, which itself formed one of the most important sociological fields of research interest (for a brief overview and introduction see Sanderson, 1995). In general, this research tradition is mainly committed to a macrosociological perspective and strongly related to the macroeconomic view on long-term developments. Depending on the political position of the researchers as well as on membership of competing scientific schools different mixtures of scientific disciplines (e.g. political economy, socioeconomic research) and terms to describe and explain the phenomena under observation (e.g. modernisation, imperialism) have been developed. In the 1960s and the early 1970s, many research studies were conducted on the socioeconomic development of countries. Most had a comparative perspective and they were mainly based on (Neo-) Marxist or structural-functional theories. Confronted with Karl Marx and his postulation of historical materialism (the first explicitly formulated theory of social change with class conflicts as its driving force, dominating theoretical thinking, at least in Europe, up to the midst of the 20th century) functionalism, the North American mainstream of sociological theory-building of this time, was criticised for its static and therefore conservative implications. As a reaction to this criticism, Parson (1966) linked his structural-functional theory to biological evolution theory. While the British social theorist Herbert Spencer failed to earn broad respect for his trial to connect sociological thinking on biological evolution theory only a short time after its revolutionary influence at the end of the 19th century, Parsons reformulation had been recognised as a stimulating innovation. This paved the way for several theoretical and empirical works which were summarised under the label of modernisation theory (although they never built one homogenous theoretical school; as an overview see Zapf, 1975). What is common to these studies of social change (as well as for dependency theory or transformation theory) is the attempt to explain social development primarily with macrosociological variables (for an overview on these theories see Box 1). This is also true for macroeconomic modelling, especially those studies concerned with labour market development (including neoclassical theory, as well as Keynesianism; for an overview on labour market economy see Franz, 1991; Ashenfelter and Layard, 1986; Holler, 1986). Although micro theories of social action are not generally rejected, there are only weak ties to them within these studies. While most modernisation theorists (economists as well as sociologists) in functionalistic tradition argue in terms of social systems (sometimes using individuals only as puppets on the strings of norms and sanctions, which perfectly determine their behaviour), the majority of macroeconomists refer to the homo oeconomicus concept, describing human decisions as perfectly rational in terms of economic considerations. In further theoretical development, both kinds of oversimplification proved to be too weak as a satisfying explanation of social change. Contrary to this, the second major line of research associated with life-course and biographical research focuses on individual development and has its roots in microsociological, ethnographical, psychological, and pedagogical theories (for an overview see Elder, 1991). Early works on family patterns and migration in Europe and the US considered the importance of personal history to explain individual decisions. To analyse this, a longitudinal approach to life history (Volkart, 1951, p. 593), including for example continuous qualitative life records, had been first developed by W. I. Thomas early after World War II. Although some research (especially on child welfare in the US) used these new methods, the popularity of such (qualitative) longitudinal studies stayed very poor until the mid-1960s. Other examples of the origins of life-course and biographical research at microanalytical level can be found in the theoretical

12 330 Impact of education and training Box 1: Modernisation theories The modernisation approach had been primarily evolved to explain underdevelopment by using the historical observable development patterns (and its causes) of advanced (western) societies as an analytical model. By using the label modernisation theory, several, sometimes competing, theories on sociocultural evolution have been summarised. Basically these theories are united by two assumptions (Sanderson, 1995; p. 212 et seq.). First, development is postulated as a standardised, general transition from underdevelopment to modern society by several steps. Rostow (1960), for example, distinguished five stages of economic development: traditional society, the preconditions for take-off, take-off, the drive to maturity and mass consumption. As important influences for transition from one stage to another he assumed social patterns, political structures and value systems as preconditions for economic development. These variables had been measured on a national level (not mentioning regional or individual differences) and used for international comparisons. Second, modernisation theories recognise development as an endogenous process of national societies, only determined by internal deficiencies or capacities. International networks and dependences had not been mentioned by this approach in its early formulations. Therefore it had been criticised by dependency theorists in the early 1970s, which put (economic) interconnections between developed and underdeveloped countries as the focus of its argument (Caporaso, 1980; Palma, 1981; Valenzuela and Valenzuela, 1978). Common to modernisation theories, dependency theory argues purely with macrosociological (e.g. migration balances of elites) or macroeconomic (e.g. terms-of-trade) variables. More recent versions of modernisation (e.g. the concept of reflexive modernisation of Beck, 1994) try to avoid the disadvantages of those early approaches by integrating other concepts of social change (like dependency theory) and by using micro theoretical explanations to support their macrosociological (or macroeconomic) considerations. For actual development of modernisation theory and critical comments on the historical background see for example Berger (2000), Engerman et al. (2003), Tiryakian (1991). More recent versions of modernisation (e.g. the concept of reflexive modernisation of Beck, 1994) try to avoid the disadvantages of those early approaches by integrating other concepts of social change (like dependency theory) and by using micro theoretical explanations to support their macrosociological (or macroeconomic) considerations. For actual development of modernisation theory and critical comments on the historical background see for example Berger (2000), Engerman et al. (2003), Tiryakian (1991). reflections on generations (especially the work of Mannheim, 1952) and in the development of the cohort concept in demographic research (e.g. Ryder, 1965). The analysis of family-cycles (Glick, 1947) and of passage between different age groups (Gennep, 1960), and those parts of sociology which had been interested in different life-periods (e.g. the sociology of ageing, the sociology of youth) are further examples. To connect the research lines on social change and on individual development, a third theoretical perspective was of great importance. Starting with the discussion on the open society (Popper, 1966) and its opportunities for intergenerational mobility in the 1950s, inequality research reached another stage of investigation by asking how people get into their social positions (e.g. classes). Important steps were made through the analyses of status attainment processes within societies (Blau and Duncan, 1967), the discussion on objective placement in classes and the meaning of collective judgements like prestige (Svalastoga, 1959), the differentiated analyses of occupational mobility (Rogoff, 1953) and the empirical definition of position structures as units for mobility research (Goldthorpe, 1980). Starting with an understanding of intergenerational mobility through the use of mobility tables in cross-sectional surveys, the focus moved more and more to a consideration of intragenerational mobility and the influence of social institutions like school, family, the economic system and so to structuring the individual life course (see Mayer and Müller, 1986; Mayer et al., 1991). As a result, status passages, transitions and critical life-events during the occupational career came into the spotlight of analyses. Within this research tradition, individual qualification and the development of the educa-

13 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 331 Figure 2: Cross-sectional design N Left-censored (no information) t 0 Information available Righ-censored (no information) Observation window t tional system has been considered as one of the most important determinants of these processes. Hence, the individual development perspective has been strongly linked with the macroprocesses of social change as well as with the quickly developing microeconomic research on labour market development, which has increased following the ongoing labour-market crisis in Europe since the 1970s. The first steps towards the institutionalisation of life-course and biographical research as a research field in its own right (in the US as well as in some European countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian states) can be found in the mid 1970s. For the first time, conferences were held and handbook articles and readers on this topic were published (Elder, 1975; Kohli, 1978). However, life-course and biographical research still remained strongly related to the sociology of age and family studies on the transition within the educational and/or the occupational system continued to be exceptions to the norm. An increasing interest in topics like status passages during life course (for an overview see Levy, 1991) and the institutionalisation of standard biographies (Kohli, 1988) began to appear only at the beginning of the 1980s. One important aspect of the growing popularity of life-course analysis within the context of educational and labour-market research in the early 1980s was the improvement in data quality and analysis techniques. As presented later, the major data sources for longitudinal research in Europe had been implemented no earlier than the beginning of the 1980s. In Germany, for instance, the interdisciplinary Special Research Unit 3, set up in 1980 at the Universities of Frankfurt/Main and Mannheim, initiated and developed over the next 12 years some of the most important data sources for life-course research to date. Examples of this work are the welfare surveys, the German socioeconomic panel (GSOEP), and the German life history study (GLHS) (Hauser et al., 1994). Today in Germany, not only scientific surveys but also process-produced data are available for life-course research on labour-market development. The Federal Institute for Employment Research (IAB) offers a data warehouse, which includes longitudinal data from the labour offices, the social statistics and several regular surveys (some of them in panel design) and tries to match this data to increase the informational basic on every case (Schwarzfärber, 2002). Similar developments can be found in other European countries (especially in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the UK). Even in the US only a few comparable data sets can be found earlier than 1980 (e.g. the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics started at the end of the 1960s). Compared to a single representative cross-sectional survey (Figure 2), the claims put forward for the quality of the data of life-course research are obviously very high. A perfect data set should contain a complete sequence of information from the beginning to the end (which in many cases means from birth to death of a person). Cross-sectional surveys (as for example used in opinion polls) are only able to represent exactly the information valid at the time of data collection. It might tell us whether one person is employed or not and whether he (or she) has a university degree. In general, this kind of survey will not tell us anything about the individual historical development (past and future) and the circumstances under which this development has taken place. The data set is incomplete due to right and left censoring. A data set is called left censored if information needed from the past of a single person s life course is missing. One simple solution to this problem is to ask for this kind of historical information during the interview, e.g. using questions like: when did you leave school? or how long have you been employed? (Figure 3). Although some elaborate techniques have been developed, the collection of retrospective information is strongly restricted by the respondent s ability to recall the facts required (Papastefanou, 1980). Due to the results of methodological studies, the use of retrospective data

14 332 Impact of education and training collection methods concerning central events in one s life (e.g. marriage, birth of child) seems to be possible (Blossfeld, 1985b). Questions regarding educational and employment history proved to be of reasonable validity too (Brückner, 1994; Dex, 1991; Mayer and Brückner, 1989). Nevertheless, the use of retrospective data collection is limited: subjective judgements and opinions especially seem to be strongly biased by an individual s attempt to streamline their own behaviour and decisions (Schwarz et al., 1994; Schwarz and Sudman, 1994). By using a single cross-sectional design another serious problem occurs related to the historical time of data collection. The information available at the time of observation is always right-censored (lack of future information) and may become obsolete at a future date due to social change (e.g. political decisions, new laws, and economic development). To measure these effects one needs comparative representative surveys at regular time intervals, which also try to capture the individual life history by additional retrospective questions (Figure 4). However, such analyses only allow population comparisons and are not able to follow individual development over time. Retrospective questions are necessary, but give no information on opinions or options facing the individual in the past. Therefore, in order also to investigate the reasons for individual decisions, panels should also include prospective questions, e.g. concerning future plans, problems, alternatives, preferences, etc., which afterwards form the basis for explaining decisions taken. To analyse the individual life course over time, a panel design is needed, for which the same persons are interviewed again at regular time intervals (Figure 5). Obviously, the technical requirements (and therefore the expenses) increase. In addition to the regular costs of representative surveys one has to control addresses and invest some extra time to find people who moved between the two dates of investigation. Additionally, some special problems associated with this kind of research design occur (for a brief overview see Blossfeld and Rohwer, 1995; p. 11 et seq.; detailed information can be found in Hsiao, 1986). From the viewpoint of life-course and biographical research, pure panel designs without any retrospective questions are limited because they only offer information for a series of discrete points on the time scale. Only a panel-design with retrospective information included (Figure 6) will give the opportunity to investigate individual life courses and their continuous development. Even then, there is still one problem remaining: the attrition of the sample. While those previously sampled in panel design will be repeatedly interviewed, the number of participants declines as time goes by (panel mortality). Moreover, the data set stays representative for the original sampling process, ignoring the population change (due to migration and fertility) in the society under observation. There- Figure 3: Retrospective design N Information available Figure 4: Comparative cross-sectional design with retrospective questions N Information available Righ-censored Observation windows (no information) (no information) t t t 0 Observation window t 0 t 1 t 2 t 3

15 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 333 Figure 5: Panel-design N Information available t 0 t 1 t 2 t 3 Observation window t fore, additional sampling at each point of observation (or at least at some reasonable time intervals) is necessary to keep the information of the panel data representative (Figure 7). Although some of the problems mentioned here are almost the same for life-course and biographical research, there is at least one important difference that makes it more difficult to collect adequate data for analyses in life-course than in biographical research. According to its interpretative approach, which tries to understand the individuals perceptions of their own biographies and to analyse them in detail, biographical research uses qualitative, hermeneutic methods of analysis. The oral or written biographical material is generally interpreted by the researcher applying interpretation techniques of the so-called life-history method: A biographical study is the study of an individual and her or his experiences as told to the researcher or found in documents and archival material (Creswell, 1998). In contrast to this, life-course research is interested in explanations of population development by using representative data sampling and quantitative analysis methods to draw conclusions. Obviously, most data collection problems listed above are closely related to the need for representative data sampling, which is seldom used in biographical research for its purpose of understanding instead of explaining. Moreover, compared to common quantitative approaches, life-course research introduced time as the most important new variable. Time can be observed from three different points of view, which are strongly interrelated. From an individual perception, time means the process of ageing, while from a collective point of view time is primarily historical development. Both aspects are connected in the context of cohorts, which are defined by means of a common historical starting point for individuals (e.g. those people born in the same year form birth cohorts, staying at the same time in specific social institutions such as school). This interrelationship Figure 6: Panel-design with retrospective questions (source population only) N Information available Figure 7: Panel-design with retrospective questions (additional sampling) N Information available t 0 t 1 t 2 t 3 Observation windows t t 0 t 1 t 2 t 3 Observation windows t

16 334 Impact of education and training was discussed and presented in diagram form (Figure 8) by the demographer Lexis (1875) at the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, most social scientific research concentrates only on one of these aspects. Life-course research offers the possibility of separating age, cohort and period effects by using specific statistical measures once these had been developed (Hagenaars and Cobben, 1978; Rogers, 1982; Mayer and Huinink, 1990, 1994) ( 2 ). Moreover, the computer equipment required for handling longitudinal data sets of adequate size did not become available before the beginning of the 1980s (for an early introduction see Tuma and Hannan, 1984). The central and commonly applied statistical method of life-course research is event history analyses (for introduction see Yamaguchi, 1991; Blossfeld and Rohwer, 1995; Giele and Elder, 1998). Using these techniques requires a special data structure. First, as dependent variable (the event), a transition between discrete states has to be defined. In general, two clearly divided states (one initial and one destination state) are used. Secondly, the time axis is assumed to be continuous and as analytical unit the time span an individual spends on this axis until a change of states occurs (the episode or spell) will be used for analyses. Hence, a precise and clearly distinguishing definition of the two states and a permanent observation of dura- Figure 8: Lexis diagram tion time are needed. Thirdly, the transition must happen at an explicitly measurable point on the time axis and not as a gradual change from origin to destination state. Right censoring can be handled adequately by using (non-parametric) survival analyses or a group of related parametric transition rate models, which additionally need the definition of a specific shape of time dependence for the transition rate. In contrast, left censoring is a serious problem in that transition rates depend on the duration in the original state (which commonly has to be assumed). Moreover, some other theoretical and methodological problems are experienced using such advanced statistical analyses (e.g. Bretagnolle and Huber-Carol, 1985; Hamerle and Tutz, 1989; Galler and Pötter, 1992). With respect to these restrictions, event-history analysis can be done by using standard statistical software packages like SAS or SPSS. However, such procedures were not available in these programmes before the end of the 1980s and the capacity of personal computers for this kind of calculation was not sufficient before the mid-1990s. Hence, the improvement of life-course research was highly dependent on the technical development in statistical hard- and software. We have to consider life-course and biographical research as still a very young and fast developing new discipline, influencing (and being influenced by) a great variety of social sciences. Amongst these, economics and sociology seem to be the most important. Age People born between 1900 and 1920 Birth cohorts Historical time 3.2. Relevance of life-course and biographical research for the investigation of education and training benefits The objective of the last section was to describe briefly the development of life-course and biographical research and to give a short overview of the methodological implications directly related to this specific perspective. As outlined above, life-course and biographical research was not primarily developed to investigate the benefits of education or labour-market ( 2 ) A simultaneous consideration of all three effects within a single model is not even possible with advanced theoretical or statistical methods because of the tautological relationship between the three effects (see for more detail Descy and Tessaring, 2001; p. 322)

17 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 335 processes. Nevertheless, these research topics have made at least strong contributions to the development of life-course and biographical research as a specific scientific research field. In the following sections, the input of life-course and biographical research on the development of educational and labour market research is discussed. The main question is to examine the central contribution of life-course and biographical perspective for these research areas. Again, no complete overview or systematic introduction into these studies should be expected. In the second half of the 20th century, education was one of the most important and sometimes most controversially discussed topics within European societies and a main source of new social movements. The most recent developments have emerged from the results of the PISA study, ranking the efficiency and competitiveness of national educational systems within OECD countries by measuring the performances of schoolchildren on comparable levels and within different subjects (OECD, 2001a, 2002a and b, 2003). While some European countries (especially Finland) did very well, others such as Germany and Luxembourg achieved only poor results, which initiated a political debate in these countries ( 3 ) (for the German results and reactions see Deutsches PISA-Konsortium, 2001, 2002; Adam, 2002; Terhart, 2002). Previous historical events (especially the Sputnik-Shock 1957 and the Student-Movements at the end of the 1960s) also stimulated political discussion inside as well as outside of the parliaments in several countries all over Europe and finally led, to a greater or lesser degree, to deeply influential reforms and a restructuring of national educational systems. Unsurprisingly, political controversies also encourage and support scientific research and therefore many different research institutions across the whole of Europe have produced studies and publications on educational topics. Among the most important issues investigated by this research are: (a) the world wide expansion of education since the 1950s. Not only in Europe but all over the world, an increasing number of young people are enrolled in education, with the greatest movement towards higher and higher levels of education. Research enquiries try to understand the reasons, as well as the results of this process for the world community, international relationships, nation states, and regional development (e.g. Boudon, 1974; Dore, 1976; Müller, 1998); (b) equal access to education. One important point associated with the expansion of education is the question of whether there are equal opportunities for entering different levels of education and what are the criteria (e.g. ability, money, social status) used for selection. In Europe, the ideal of equal opportunities and selection focused strongly on ability is widespread, although the reality in most countries varies (e.g. Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993); (c) right to follow individual aspirations. Particularly in contrast to the communist states of eastern Europe, which postulated the state s preferences on the use of individual education, the western world followed the principle of free decision-making within the educational system (excluding from this right the duty to attend schools). Therefore, not only personal abilities and performances but also individual aspirations and wishes were put into the focus of analyses (e.g. Duncan et al., 1971). Undoubtedly, studies from the life-course and biographical perspective made some very important contributions to these (and of course some other) debates. By putting cohorts into the centre of analyses, the expansion of education proved to be one important source of inequality amongst generations and the increasing importance of education for status-attainment can be demonstrated (Mayer and Blossfeld, 1990). The question of equal opportunities cannot be addressed at any one particular point of the educational career, because the circumstances at its beginning and ( 3 ) Besides the great differences of the PISA results between the Member States, one has to consider important differences in the public and in the scientific reactions. By using the OECD database on press reaction (OECD, 2002a) and the number of published press reports in each country as an indicator, the range within the EU ranges from one article (Greece and Luxembourg) to about 600 in Germany. More than half of all articles collected for EU countries are from Germany. Belgium and Austria, with around 100 articles, are next. Therefore, the German reaction on PISA is not representative by far for the EU. Compatible data for the scientific debates on PISA are not yet available in Europe.

18 336 Impact of education and training the process itself are important influences which have to be considered (Meulemann, 1990a). And finally, individual aspirations, as well as abilities and performance, are not stable parameters across time they change because of personal and societal development. As dependent variables, some very important transitions into, within and out of the educational system were analysed. The transition from school to university and from the educational to the occupational system was particularly examined. For independent variables besides the operational definition of education (which in practise offers many difficulties, as discussed later) some personal characteristics (e.g. gender, age, social status, occupation of parents) and structural aspects (e.g. school structure or system, region, class performances) were used. In general, a very broad spectrum of analyses very similar to the one presented here was used for life-course and biographical design in respect of education since the beginning of the 1980s and this changed at all events the scientific discussion on educational topics. Compared with the tremendous amount of research on education, literature on vocational training and occupational careers seems to be rather small. While work is one of the central themes in sociology and economics, and labour-market processes attracted a great scientific attention following the labour-market crisis in Western Europe shortly after the first oil crisis in the 1970s, the benefits of education and training for the occupational life course are more or less marginal topics inside this field. Other contributors will accentuate this kind of research from a macro perspective in the third Cedefop report on VET-research. Therefore, only some short remarks on the development of social and economic research on work, employment, occupation, and the labour market with respect to the impact of life-course and biographical research are necessary here. Again, three specific topics should be highlighted: (a) entrance to the labour market. The increasing extent of youth unemployment has focused attention on the circumstances under which the transition from the educational to the employment system happens (e.g. Farvaque and Salais, 2002; Jahnukainen, 2001; Kortteinen and Tuomikoski, 1998; Blossfeld, 1985a). The adaptability of the VET-system to economic needs, which underwent a great deal of investigation from an international comparative perspective, became an important research topic; (b) unemployment and the chances of re-entering the labour market. The increasing number of unemployed people in Europe also led to the question of how to get them into work again (for the evaluation of active labour-market policy from a macroeconomic point of view see the contribution of Hujer et al. to this report). Moreover, to avoid long-term unemployment with its socio-psychological consequences (as demonstrated earlier by Jahoda et al., 1933; and re-confirmed by other analyses e.g. Jahoda, 1982; Kelvin and Jarrett, 1985) this topic became an important political issue. To develop adequate measures, scientists (especially economists) became involved in the political process (e.g. for the EU, the European Employment Strategy and the National Action Plans (NAP) for Employment: European Commission, 2000, 2003; for Germany also: Senatverwaltung, 1997); (c) career-mobility and lifelong learning. One of the most important resources for the economy in developed countries is the skill level of the employed. Due to increasing worldwide competition, the pressure to increase individual competences and to adapt them to accelerating innovation cycles is growing both for individuals and companies. From an individual perspective, lifelong learning is increasingly becoming a premise for job security. However, the flexibility needed to acquire new skills also requires the individual to change jobs more often than before and to accept periodic phases of unemployment. According to the individualisation thesis of Beck (1994), patch-work career patterns like this will take the place of family-like types of company memberships (for empirical research on the risks of this kind of job career see for example Andreß, 1989; Büchel, 1992; Felstead et al., 1997; Tuominen, 2000; van de Werfhorst, 2002). The contribution of life-course and biographical research to these three topics (as for some others) is again very straightforward. As entrance, or re-entrance, to the labour market is a time-dependent transition (according to the dura-

19 The benefits of education, training and skills from an individual life-course perspective with a particular focus on life-course and biographical research 337 tion in the educational system or whether or not employed), the use of longitudinal data and event history analyses proved to be the only adequate way of analysing these processes. Moreover, life-course and biographical research assumes time outside the employment system not only dependent on specific historical situations (e.g. labour-market imbalances due to business cycles) but also on individual experiences and skills assembled through the life course. Both effects can be separated and controlled for the analysis of cohort differentiation, which seems to be the right way to test the patch-work career assumption of individualisation theory as an effect of structural social change. In conclusion, both educational and labour-market research was productively influenced by the life-course and biographical perspective and its techniques of analysis. However, life-course and biographical research never became the leading force within this research field. Additionally, the mainstream of life-course and biographical research followed broader research interests other than the benefits of VET for work life. Nevertheless, a small but slowly growing group of European social scientists uses the increasing amount of appropriate data for this kind of analysis. An overview of the different theoretical assumptions, scientific perspectives and results of this work is presented in the following chapter.

20 4. Empirical evidence 4.1. Life-course and biographical research in Europe Originating from national social research movements in the US and northern and central European countries (amongst them France, Germany, Norway, and the UK) empirical life-course research is increasingly starting to locate its insights in international contexts. Besides the progress made in several European countries to develop an internal professional framework of longitudinal empirical research, cross-national and international cooperation enables researchers to study country comparative issues. Current issues under investigation are societal trends, comparisons of different political systems and national differences in access to public goods, such as education. In contrast, the exploration of educational benefits in the life course has received less attention in European social research, not only in comparative but also in national contexts. Moreover, earlier research in countries with a comparatively long tradition of life-course analysis and of investigation into educational issues like Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, seems to be undergoing a shift in emphasis away from research into educational impact to a broader investigation of individual life chances under certain social conditions and developments where education plays only a minor role. The reasons for this development may lie in difficulties regarding the definition and measurement of education (or, no less demanding, training, skills, abilities, qualifications, etc.) which make hypotheses on educational outcomes less attractive than the mere description of social situations and developments, using education as one explanatory factor among others. And indeed, specific educational benefits are hardly determinable by quantitative measurements, because cause(s) and effects are interrelated, leaving almost no possibility to arrange the effects in a testable causal order. Keeping the above in mind, this paper will attempt to provide an overview of the limited existing knowledge on the benefits of education, training and skills in an individual life course. To be able to do so it is necessary to include several empirical works which give information on the benefits of education and training in the life course but which stem not primarily from life-course research as a scientific discipline. However, even these studies do at least take up a lifetime perspective and use longitudinal data for analysis. This section will initially give an introduction to the thematic interests, approaches, variables and methods utilised predominantly in the investigation of education and training benefits from a life-course perspective. Subsequently, the data employed for empirical analysis will be presented. Finally, various studies are listed and described along with the criteria developed in Chapter 2, Sections to and Section 4.2. Before proceeding, one important factor needs to be addressed in order to understand the meaning of the term life-course perspective within the framework of research into the impact of education and training. As shown in Chapter 3, life-course research itself is not historically without precedence but has developed from the evolution and convergence of different theoretical approaches, faculties and empirical research areas. The range of theoretical approaches involved are, for example, human capital, segmentation and status allocation theories, gender and ageing theories, and theories of generational change. Faculties linked are economics, sociology, social psychology, developmental psychology and social demography. Empirical impacts come from mobility research, family cycle observations, qualification and career research, etc. Despite all their inherent differences this mix has one main thing in common: the investigation of dynamic processes. Life-course research is to be understood as an instrument to catch these dynamics, rather more as a perspective than an independent and united theory. Therefore, it is more an enlargement (mainly in an empirical sense) of other theoretical approaches than an alternative. In general, life-course and biographical research have recourse to one or other of these theoretical